Forestry to remain under the Ministry of Agriculture and not be incorporated into the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; environmental groups urge legislators to withdraw the proposal

Environmental groups: the logging industry has already destroyed 80 percent of Taiwan's original forests

As the central government's organizational restructuring unfolds at full speed and the draft Organic Act of the Ministry of Agriculture is about to be sent for review, ruling-party at-large legislator Cheng Tien-tsai and 17 other legislators have proposed that agencies such as the Forestry Bureau and the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, which had already been agreed by consensus to be placed under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, be returned to the future Ministry of Agriculture. In response, yesterday (the 2nd) the Citizens of the Earth Foundation, the Taiwan Green Party and several other environmental groups held a press conference, calling on the government to attach importance to forest conservation and demanding that Cheng Tien-tsai and the other legislators withdraw the proposal, so as to preserve the integrity of Taiwan's forest ecosystems.

The Citizens of the Earth Foundation pointed out that Taiwan's forests have no industrial-use value, and that the logging industry, from the Japanese colonial era through the Nationalist government era, has already destroyed nearly 80 percent of Taiwan's original forests, which is the root cause of today's landslides and mudflows. Taiwan's forests no longer hold any advantage for timber use, so importing timber and wood products is reasonable and necessary.

According to Legislative Yuan document No. 13987 of General Proposal No. 1204, legislator Cheng Tien-tsai and 18 others, on the grounds of "coordinating with organizational restructuring to achieve the goal of organizational streamlining, developing agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry while also taking into account forest conservation, soil and water conservation, and rural development," added to Article 2 of the draft "Organic Act of the Ministry of Agriculture", which sets out the matters under the Ministry of Agriculture's jurisdiction, a new Subparagraph 4: "the planning, management and supervision of policies, regulations and plans concerning forests, conservation, wild animals and plants, and biodiversity." This means that the "Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency," the "National Parks Agency," the "Taiwan Forestry Research Institute" and the "Biodiversity Research Institute," which the ruling and opposition parties had already agreed by consensus should be placed under the Executive Yuan's version of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, should all be incorporated into the Ministry of Agriculture.

However, it is understood that legislator Cheng Tien-tsai's lobbying target is only the "Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency" and the "Taiwan Forestry Research Institute," with no mention at all of the "National Parks Agency" or the "Biodiversity Research Institute," making the motive for the lobbying highly questionable.